Health Care Ethics

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Within the health care profession, safety is among the top priorities for all employees. Some characterize the profession as a whole by its extreme attention to detail. One unnecessary mistake can be detrimental to both the profession and the individual offender. Countless lives have been lost due to malpractice or primitive mistakes regarding an operation. As such, safety plays an integral role within the underlying business operations of the health care industry. To help abate the influence of mistakes within the industry, health authorities introduced various licenses and degrees that are used as proof of the practitioner’s competence in the field. Unlicensed personnel are, thus, deemed inadequate by their peers until they receive such certification or license (Dogra, 2012). Upon receipt of such license, the profession as a whole will acknowledge the skills and prowess of the individual practitioner. This helps to establish thresholds and standards of excellence within the industry as a whole.

Subsequently, numerous ethical issues arise when unlicensed personnel are allowed to conduct work on patients that only a licensed practitioner may perform. For one, the unlicensed personnel may be incompetent in regards to the certain practice. This is extremely detrimental to the patient who relies on the expertise of the hospital to restore his health. The patient, therefore, would demand a licensed person to perform any sophisticated operation. For example, an individual would not want an unlicensed practitioner to conduct brain surgery when a licensed doctor is readily available (Boyt, 2012).

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Furthermore, unlicensed personnel are susceptible to mistakes as they attempt to prove themselves to their peers. They are more likely to take unnecessary risks in an effort to garner the admiration of peers and patients alike. As this individual takes more risks, they undoubtedly attempt to perform duties that are beyond their scope of competence. As such, the patient suffers due to the ineptitude and lack of skill the unlicensed practitioner possesses. This is unethical because, lives can potentially be lost at the expense of an unlicensed practitioners attempt for acceptance (Home, 2012).

Finally, unlicensed practitioners can be allowed to work on patients because it is cheaper for the hospital in terms of salary. Licensed personnel are more costly than their unlicensed counterparts. As such, the unlicensed personnel are allowed to conduct work in order to save money for the hospital. This too is unethical as the hospital is putting its own financial affairs ahead of the welfare of its own patients and clients. As such, lives could potentially be lost due to malpractice and incompetence of the unlicensed personnel.